Usage in battles

This aircraft is an all-round performer, with later versions taking on FW-190s and later 109 F variants. It has an excellent turn time at low and high speeds, a good dive speed and good rate of climb. Its higher altitude performance is fairly average, but this doesn't really matter since most lower tier games occur at lower/ ground level. The issue with the C variant is that its armament is sometimes in-effective against higher tier aircraft with armour as well as the ammo count being quite small, meaning frequent reloads. In Realistic Battles, it is recommended to climb straight- side-climbing can be done, but isn't normally necessary- and gain altitude over your opponent, before diving and pulling numerous energy loops, oval-shaped flight moves over the enemy. Head-ons, especially with little armour and the large radial engine, is not recommended unless the enemy is known to be weaker. A P-36 has the speed to catch and escort bombers if they choose to wait, and can do an excellent job of escorting higher tier bombers. The one weakness of the plane's maneuverability is its role rate, which can be countered by hard yaw movements, although this is only advised in large direction changes. In dog-fights, this reduces speed and accuracy.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements

Mixer

Pitch

Radiator

Supercharger

Turbocharger

Oil

Water

Type

Not controllable

ControllableNo automatic pitch

Controllable

Not controllable

Combined

Not controllable

Not controllable

Pros and cons

Pros:

Excellent climb speed.

Excellent dive speed.

Better-than-average turn-radius.

Good energy retention.

Cons:

Small ammo count.

Sometimes in-effective weapons.

No bombs.

Less-than-average roll rate at certain speeds.

Weak armour.

Poor in a head-on.

Large engine that can get hit.

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too big, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article. This section may also include the vehicle's devblog entry (if applicable) and the ingame encyclopedia description (under === Encyclopedia Info ===, also if applicable).